Chinese reaction under fire

Already working around the clock, workers at Beijing's People's Hospital are unable to escape the SARS threat.

Now quarantined behind large gates, the masked employees distributed clothes and food left by visitors and care for patients as well as their limited knowledge of the virus allows.

The hospital, which has more than 3000 staff and patients, remained cordoned off by police tape yesterday.

Restrictions were imposed on a second hospital, the Ditan, which specialises in infectious diseases, while a third hospital and two collegedormitories were sealed on Friday.

The decision by health officials in Beijing to make quarantining compulsory has come under attack from a World Health Organisation specialist, who says SARS suspects are being victimised.

"If you make it hell for them, they go into hiding," said Dr Wolfgang Preiser, a German virologist. "It is a bit of an overreaction. Health officials must know how to draw a balance and stop victimising people unnecessarily."

Beijing health official Guo Jiyong said his department had ordered 4000 people who have had "intimate contact" with suspected SARS cases to stay at home.

Under new regulations applying to hospitals, factories, hotels, schools, residential blocks and anywhere else where the virus is found, anyone violating the compulsory quarantine would be "severely punished".